Parliament can emerge stronger from this mess: here's how to do it

Charles Moore has written the best piece so far on the parliamentary expenses scandals. He draws heavily and consciously on the programme set out by Douglas Carswell and me in The Plan: proposals which might have seemed recondite at the time but which, after the past week, are starting to look urgent (see, for example, Iain Murray's piece here, and the comments that follow).

Every crisis is an opportunity. Now is our chance to tilt power from the executive to the legislature, to restore integrity to Parliament, to bring MPs closer to the people. This is how to do it.

As Charles says, the first step must be to remove Speaker Martin – not because he is a dim-witted, partial, greedy, chippy, aggressive, inarticulate oaf, but because he has failed in his primary role. Tenacious in the defence of his own and MPs' financial perks, he has been feeble in asserting Parliament's collective prerogatives. Again and again, he has sided with the Government against the Conservatives and – even more so – against Labour backbenchers.

On Monday, Douglas is tabling a motion of no confidence in the Speaker – the first time such a thing has happened in 300 years. MPs in all parties should take soundings in their constituencies about whether to sign. This is no time for anonymous briefings, or delegations with revolvers and whisky (the Speaker is, in any case, teetotal). The thing must be done openly. Backroom manoeuvring has brought MPs to their present disgrace. Let them now display some manliness.